Beyond a Shadow
by Enigma2Me
Summary: During a mission, Rouge discovers something from her past she thought she would never see again. Unfortunately, some would prefer the past remained buried...


Chapter 1: Uncovering the Past

"ACHOO!"

"Gesundheit! Jeez, I thought they got your olfactory sensors fixed by now, CA-NN0N!"

"Yeah you'd think, F0-DUH, but apparently some bot at the factory dropped the shipment with the new noses into a vat of molten iron. It's gonna be at least another week before another one arrives!" The Egg Pawn sniffed loudly.

"Ugh, that sucks man." F0-DUH replied as they walked down the corridor.

"Eh, could be worse. Least we got off lucky compared to R3D and 5H-ERT. I do not envy them being outside in this weather."

"What I wanna know is what the heck the boss was thinking for dumping us out **here** of all places!? What's so important that you'd need to store it on top of one of the coldest mountains this side of the planet!?"

"Hey, don't question the Doctor, F0-DUH! That's the first thing we learned back in Basic Braining! Sides, if you got something really important to hide, an area no one really cares about is pretty good spot for the job."

"Yeah I guess…still, what **if** someone decided to come along and try to get the thing we're guarding? I doubt you and me alone could protect it…"

CA-NN0N snorted.

"Puh-lease, even if someone managed to get in here, they'd have to be pretty damn smart to find the vault in the lower levels…"

"Or I could just let you two knuckleheads blab the location for me. But thanks for the info, hun."

"Huh?" Before the two robots could move, a figure shot out from above them, swiftly kicking CA-NN0N's head off with ease. F0-DUH could only squeak as the assailant whirled around, the edge of her boot cleanly bisecting the weak metal body.

"Now that was far too easy," the assailant said, checking her boots. Of her current ensemble, which included a sneaking suit that did nothing to hide her curvaceous form (or her large ears); her boots were specifically customized for her. Any damage done to them would be far more difficult to fix.

"I still think a little bit more subtlety would have been preferable, Rouge," A calm though mildly annoyed voice said through her headset communicator.

"There's more than one way to deal with obstacles that aren't just limited to stealth, Invisi-boy..." Rouge adopted a flirty tone. "…of course, if you want me to give you some private lessons for flexibility…"

"Um… that will not be necessary Rouge…and my name is Espio."

"I'm only teasing…you really need to lighten up a little…" Rouge commented as she made her way down to the basement floor, weaving between the cameras with ease.

"My apologies …I'm just not exactly used to going on such an important mission this early in my employment…"

"Considering you were one of the top candidates during that recruiting drive we had, it's not too surprising. Besides, better you than that oafish dragon…"

"Well he was certainly very...enthusiastic if anything."

Rouge rolled her eyes.

"That's by far the nicest thing you could say about him. I don't think I've ever seen anyone flunk as badly as he did. Of course you should have seen what he tried to do after the recruiting drive was over."

"…Do I dare ask what happened?"

"Let's just say he picked the wrong day to get 'grabby' with me, if you catch my drift."

Espio sweat-dropped; a little unnerved at Rouge's admission of causing the ...unpleasant damage he had seen all over the dragon.

"Uh well yes..." Espio hastily changed the subject, "So anyways, how close are you to the vault? This steam vent isn't exactly comfortable, and the cold's still messing up the sensors."

"I should be pretty close now. Just one more corner…"

As she turned, she found herself in a large and empty room; dead in the center was the vault. Rouge tapped her chin, looking around carefully.

"Hmm…this seems a little **too** convenient… Espio, do you see anything from your end?"

"Nothing that I can tell; everything around seems to be clean. Rather strange that they would leave the target so blatantly unguarded though… It might be possible the whole room is rigged in some form."

"You're right. I wouldn't be surprised if the vault itself was a trap as well..."

As Rouge mused, she saw a strange flicker from the corner of her eye. She blinked, and turned towards her left. She peered at the wall closely…and was rewarded with a very slight shifting movement. The batgirl smirked slightly.

"…or maybe we're simply not looking at this room thoroughly enough."

"What do you mean?"

Rouge responded by throwing a kick at the wall where she had seen the flickering.

"Rouge! What are you doing!? That wall could be..."

Whatever Espio was about to say died on his lips when Rouge suddenly vanished from his sensors. He tried to maintain his calm as he toggled through the various settings on his sensors, trying to find her.

"Rouge!" He called into his com-link. "Where are you?!"

"Relax Espio. I'm still here; There's a secret room behind here." the chameleon sighed in relief. "From what I can tell, it looks like there might be a cloaking device of some sort to keep sensors from noticing this area. I don't think we can remove it though, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a silent alarm in here as well."

"Then perhaps we should make a tactical retreat while we still have the time. I mean no offense to you Rouge, but I doubt even you can handle an entire squadron of robots in such a confined space."

"We still need to find the target, and right now this seems to be the best place to search."

"But I don't have any visuals of that area! I won't be able to assist you from this vantage point!"

"Oh don't worry about little ole me. I'll just pop in; grab whatever needs to be grabbed, and pop back out. The worst case scenario is that things become less boring."

Espio sighed, rubbing his brow in frustration.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

As Espio began to scan the area for any hostiles, Rouge went further down the passageway, eventually reaching what felt like a door. Inspecting it to the best of her ability, she found nothing to suggest a trigger or alarm. Carefully opening it, she peeked around the door.

Behind the door was a circular room, filled with various types of equipment. However, only the object in the center of the room caught Rouge's eye. It was an Egg-shaped pod, filled with a strange green liquid. And within that liquid was a familiar figure with black fur, red highlights and a distinctly spiked head. Rouge gasped.

"**Shadow!?**"

**End of Chapter 1**

**Enigma2Me: Yep, I've decided to start on my Shadow the Hedgehog adaptation even though I'm still working on my Colors adaptation as well. As such, the updates on this fanfic will be more erratic since I don't want to burn myself out by doing too many fics at once. Also, for those of you wondering why it seems so similar to Heroes, that's because in this adaptation, Heroes didn't have Team Dark, only Team Sonic, Team Rose, and Team Chaotix. And no I am not going to do a Heroes adaptation; I don't really care enough for that to do anything about it. Some of you are also no doubt confused as to why Espio seems to be working for GUN now; that will be covered in the future.**


End file.
